Tribological Characteristics of Manufactured Carbon Under Extreme Contact Conditions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of contact pressure on the friction and wear behavior of manufactured carbon. The ultimate goal was to identify the friction coefficient behavior of these systems as well as establish an understanding of the interfacial processes driving the frictional response. Experiments were conducted using a custom-build test apparatus with manufactured carbon running against chromium carbide thermal spray-coated low alloy steel substrates in the unlubricated condition. The results showed that the measured coefficient of friction for this tribocouple decreases with increasing contact pressure. The wear behavior of the manufactured carbon was found to be inversely proportional to the friction coefficient observations, with the highest contact pressure condition resulting in high wear. In addition, ex situ high magnification visual and cross-sectional analysis was performed in order to capture transfer film and other related phenomena and understand the difference in relative friction and wear response.

Keywords

• aerospace tribology
• graphite
• thermal spray
• tribological coatings
• third bodies